1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for supporting bags. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for providing a bag opening in a generally horizontal position so that the bag may be loaded.
2. Description of the Related Art
Grocery shoppers have responded to the trend of environmental awareness by using durable shopping bags that are re-used for multiple shopping outings.
Manufacturers of bag holding apparatus have built bag holders currently in use to take advantage of mass-produced disposable bags. A disposable bag of this type is typically made of a lightweight plastic that is amenable to folding the bag into a roughly square form. Storeowners have benefitted from such a bag design since such bags can be bundled into a stack and dispensed from a compact location attached to a bag holder.
One typical disposable bag form is the ‘T-shirt’ bag. The t-shirt bag comprises two large panels that form straps. Such a bag, when viewed from the side, resembles a sleeve-less T-shirt. Holes for grasping the handles are made in a pleated portion that is generally not visible when the bags are placed in their stacked form by the manufacturer. Accordingly, the pleated side is invariably made to be expandable when the bag is loaded or carried. The mouth of such bags is chiefly made up of sides that are formed by two pleated sides and two unpleated or broad sides. The unpleated sides are wider than the pleated sides.
Such bags, being highly flexible, are generally best presented for loading by applying tension between the two handles. Each handle joins to the body of the bag by two roots.
A root is the part of the bag where a handle joins to the main body of the bag. Accordingly, each handle has two roots, and weight is generally distributed equally to each root.
Prior art bag holders of disposable bags rely on the pleated sides, from which the handles rise, being shorter than the unpleated sides. Accordingly, in order to place the mouth of such bags into a loading position, the prior art holders generally support a handle by the roots so as to keep the roots of a handle far from the roots of a second handle. More specifically, each root of a handle is held closer to each other than the distance between two roots of different handles. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,576,310, 4,695,020, and 6,726,156.
In contrast, a re-usable bag, as shown in FIG. 1, moves left handles 101 and right handle 103 so that the roots of a handle are placed on the broader side 105 of the mouth of the bag. Consequently, the narrower sides 107 and 109 of such bags lack handles. Prior art bag holders could hold such a re-usable bag, however, in order to leave a considerable slack in the handles so that the root of the handle falls or otherwise fails to develop tension on the bag mouth. Other holders in the art can also create unwanted puckering in the mouth of the bag, for the reason that the roots 111, 113, 115, and 117 of the handles are supported at a width far wider than the narrow side, for example, side 109, that separates the side to which each handle attaches. In addition, the existing holders fail to account for reusable bags that have arc portions 150 that are larger than the material provided as handles in the plastic bags. Thus, when a reusable bag having proportions shown in FIG. 1 is used with a prior art support, roots 111, 113, 115, and 117 tend to dangle below the supported position of the arc portion 150 of each handle. Furthermore, prior art bag holders can also leave unwanted slack in the handles and/or bag, which can lead to the bag collapsing while loading the bag.
The use of reusable bags at the checkout station is problematic in that the bags lack an adequate support mechanism, unlike the currently used disposable plastic bags. In particular, a need exists to hold open such durable bags, regardless of size of the bag.